Russia Moves Ahead on Plan to Ban U.S. Adoptions

By

Gregory L. White

Dec. 19, 2012 10:07 p.m. ET

MOSCOW—Russia's lower house of parliament on Wednesday gave preliminary approval to a measure banning Americans from adopting Russian orphans. The move is viewed as retaliation against new U.S. restrictions on violators of human rights.

ENLARGE

Police officers detain a protester at the Duma as lawmakers debated the adoption measure on Wednesday.
Associated Press

The adoption ban is still several steps from becoming law. And a number of Russian officials—including senior members of the cabinet—have expressed unease about the proposal in recent days. Some parliament members have suggested that President Vladimir Putin may order it toned down.

But the 388-15 vote for the proposal highlights the intensity of anti-American feeling among Russia's political elite. Those emotions have been fueled over the past year by a steady stream of Kremlin criticism of alleged U.S. support for political opponents and claims that Washington was seeking to undermine Russia. On Tuesday, ex-Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said the Kremlin's anti-Western stance had stalled plans to convert Moscow into an international financial center.

In recent weeks, the Kremlin had begun quietly signaling a less-confrontational tone, said diplomats, hoping for a visit to Moscow early next year by President Barack Obama. But the U.S. human-rights legislation, passed this month, evoked a fierce and public response.

Known as the Magnitsky Act, the measure denies visas and imposes financial sanctions on Russian officials and others suspected of human-rights violations. The law is named after Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer for a U.S. hedge fund who died in a Moscow jail in 2009 after exposing what he alleged to be a $234 million fraud by senior police and security officials. The law's sanctions apply to anyone alleged to have been involved in that case, as well. Russian authorities have denied the charges.

Moscow angrily protested the law as unjustified intervention in Russia's domestic politics and drafted its own law imposing similar restrictions on Americans alleged to be involved in human-rights violations, as well as what Russia sees as abuse of Russian citizens in the U.S. In particular, the law targeted those involved in several cases in which Americans received seemingly mild punishment for abuse and in some cases murder of adopted children from Russia.

The overall ban on adoption, which would take effect Jan. 1 and would abrogate a 2011 U.S.-Russia adoption treaty, was added as an amendment backed by all the parties in the Kremlin-dominated parliament. Other amendments passed Wednesday banned U.S.-funded nongovernmental organizations from political activity in Russia.

"The Duma is defending the thieves and embezzlers on the so-called Magnitsky list," said Sergei Mitrokhin, leader of the opposition Yabloko party. "And defending them by punishing orphans!"

More than 11,000 children from Russia have been adopted in the U.S. since 2006, making the U.S. by far the largest foreign recipient, according to Russian government data. Though the annual totals have been declining as Russia has tightened restrictions, Russia is the third-most-popular country for adoptions in the U.S., behind China and Ethiopia, according to the State Department.

Foreign adoption is politically sensitive in Russia, where about 100,000 children live in orphanages and other state facilities. Cases of abuse in the U.S.—including 19 deaths in the past two decades—have received heavy coverage on state television.

In a meeting with legislators from the ruling party early Wednesday, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said, "we have a prosperous enough society, the state has the funds, but life in orphanages shouldn't be horrid, but comfortable." He called on the party to back an effort to stimulate adoption within Russia.

His comments came after some members of his own cabinet had questioned the ban. Education Minister Dmitry Livanov wrote on Twitter early in the week that, "this is eye-for-an-eye logic, but it's wrong, because it's our children that could suffer, the ones who can't find adoptive parents in Russia." His comments triggered harsh attacks from legislators from the ruling party.

On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the proposed ban "is wrong, and I'm confident that the State Duma will in the end make the right decision."

To become law, the measure has to pass a third reading in the lower house, or Duma, then clear the upper house before going to President Putin for his signature.

Mr. Putin hasn't spoken in public about the proposal. On Wednesday, his spokesman said the president understood the "emotional reaction" of legislators to the Magnitsky Act, but he didn't specify whether Mr. Putin would veto it if the proposal makes it into the final version of the bill.

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